The researcher on the murder in Landskrona: “Very remarkable”

The police have once again cordoned off the area in Landskrona where a 14-year-old girl was found dead during the night to Tuesday, in order to find DNA traces that can clarify the course of events.

The girl had been subjected to severe violence when she was found, and according to the mother had been on her way to a pajama party with some friends on the day in question.

And during Friday, a 15-year-old girl was detained, on probable grounds suspected of “together with another” having carried out the suspected murder.

Another girl, who is under 15 years old, is suspected of involvement and has therefore been taken into the care of social authorities.

Female fatal violence often relationship-related

According to Jenny Yourstone, PhD in psychology at Södertörn University who has researched violent crimes among women, these types of cases are unusual. And several aspects make this particular event particularly special.

– What is unusual is that it concerns very young people and that they are girls, that the victim is also a girl, that the body is found outdoors, and that there is also suspicion of kidnapping, which makes one suspect that there might be someone form of planning in this crime, she says.

Jenny Yourstone describes that you can generally see that women who commit deadly violence are not infrequently affected by mental illness, and that they are often standing next to the victim.

– Female fatal violence is above all relationship-related. The largest group is women who kill a current or former partner, the next group is other close relatives, and then acquaintances. And even more unusual is it against complete strangers.

Few women in lethal violence

But even if female crime has recently received attention, and with the murder of Tove in Vetlanda in the back of my mind, there is nothing to indicate that what happened in Landskrona has become more common.

And over time, the percentage of murders with female perpetrators has remained relatively stable, at around 10 percent of cases. Something that also means that this particular type of crime often receives a lot of attention.

– It is clear that when it happens, it gets a lot of attention – precisely because it is so unusual, says Jenny Yourstone, and continues:

– If you take the example of the Vetlanda case, it was very remarkable and something we haven’t really seen. And now another case comes again, and then these people are even younger. Admittedly, they are only suspects now, but just that they are suspects, and so young and women, is remarkable.

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